Welcome to 2021!

Wishing all visitors to the site a happy and safe new year.

“Celebrating the past and protecting the future.”

This is the mantra The Charlton Society lives by, having been established over 50 years ago – in fact the Society celebrated its 50th anniversary last year to great acclaim and interest, despite the challenges 2020 presented.

The Society was established as civic community group to address the conservation and improvement of SE7 and surrounding environs, to fight for the protection of its heritage, of which the area is blessed with many jewels, from the Jacobean splendour of Charlton House itself, to the Charlton Village parish church of St Luke’s festooned with a myriad of treasures including a statue commemorating Spencer Percival, infamously the only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated. 

But it is not just the high-profile historical sites that we are interested in, it is also the preservation of coal holes, gasometers and ancient mulberry trees to name but a few of the other artefacts that are just as much a part of our local heritage. 

The Society’s civic involvement goes far beyond this, the Society is responsive to the current concerns of residents living in the area; from traffic volume, bus lanes and cycles lanes, speed limits, street lighting, quality of roads and pavements, and beyond. The Society has a very close working relationship with the Royal Borough of Greenwich and other civic groups in assessing all such issues and challenging proposals.

And as for the future, the other important area in which the Society is involved in is in scrutinising Greenwich planning policy. The Society has been rigorous in challenging recent proposed residential and retail developments. We had a number of successes in 2020, and were delighted to report that both the Rockwell development proposals at Anchor & Hope and the Meyer Tower development in Woolwich were rejected. 

A specific project the Society is committed to working on is the Charlton Save Our Village Action Plan (SOVAP), this was presented at the beginning of 2020. For further details regarding the status of activity regarding SOVAP, and to read the planning document, please check out the site. 

There are more details of everything the Society is involved in on the site and how to get involved. The Society usually holds monthly meetings at Charlton House, but due to the current ongoing pandemic lockdown, that is not currently possible, however we are now hosting monthly meetings online, please check details.

If you have queries and wish further information on any of the Society’s work, please get in touch here

We wish you all the best wishes for 2021, stay safe and keep well.

The Charlton Society Committee